Lakeside bass anglers win team title

Ask veteran bass anglers Jim Sleight and Ron Overman what it takes to win Paul Leader’s El Cajon Ford Team Open Championship, and they’ll tell you all about it.

After taking the first-day lead on El Capitan Lake with a stringer of bass that ended up holding the heaviest bass of the two-day tournament and totaling 13 pounds, best at both lakes, the two veterans went to Lower Otay Lake and blanked.

Guess old guys really don’t rule. It takes two very good days of fishing to prevail in Leader’s summertime bass bash.

That’s how a couple of lesser-known Lakeside guys earned the title, scratching out a limit of bass at Lower Otay on Monday before going Tuesday to El Capitan, their money lake, and winning it.

Brian Johnson, 29, an electrician, and Randy Sapp, 44, a general contractor, teamed to win the 12th annual competition. They earned $6,000 and two fine bass trophies.

“We had the early limit, but we didn’t win it until our last stop, with the last fish we caught (a 3 ½-pounder on a red and white jig),” said Johnson, who put in the bulk of the team’s pre-tournament work by fishing El Capitan the 27 days it was open to anglers in the last few months. “This is the fourth year I’ve fished it, and this is the one I’ve always wanted to win.”

It was Sapp’s first time fishing the most lucrative team tournament on the West Coast. It drew 31 teams this year, down more than 50 percent from last summer. But Leader insists he will keep it going.

“Most of these guys here have bought more than one vehicle from me over the years,” said Leader, whose El Cajon Ford business has been rock solid in East County since 1974. “All of us love this sport of bass fishing. It’s a passion with us, and the last thing I want to do is dump this tournament.”

Johnson and Sapp teamed for 10 bass totaling 25.41 pounds (198 points) in two days of fishing, placing second at both reservoirs but totaling enough points to win.

“I had a lot of confidence fishing El Capitan, but no confidence at Otay,” Johnson said. “We just got lucky at Otay and got a limit.”